


the touch of your hand as warm as the sun

by girlsarewolves



Series: Switch Off the Sun [2]
Category: Blade (Movie Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen, crack ship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-01
Updated: 2014-02-01
Packaged: 2018-01-10 19:20:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1163499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/girlsarewolves/pseuds/girlsarewolves
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I have a heart encased in bone, but you slipped right through. </p><p>(Loosely tied to 'can anyone switch off the sun?')</p><p>8/28/15: Edited to fix typos and errors, polished up some of the rougher writing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the touch of your hand as warm as the sun

* * *

There are days when he feels a sharp pain in his chest; like smooth, cool silver slipping through the bones encasing his heart.  
  
Those are the days when he's close to her. When King is on other missions, and Abigail takes him with her instead. Her blood rushing through her veins like a sweet, feral lullaby thumping in his ears; the tangy smell of her after a fight - sweat and adrenaline and worn leather, hints of garlic and unscented body wash.  
  
In general, he hates the nearness of humans; their body heat aggravating his own constant state of fever. But he doesn't notice it with her; there's only the pain and the itching in his fingers to know what her hair feels like.  
  
She talks to him and calls him by his name - 'Do you prefer Jared or Nomak?' she asked him once, treating him as though he were a normal person - and he thinks that perhaps he loves her for it.  
  
If he could love.  
  
He remembers the cracked remains of his father, the sight of his sister's neck before Blade intervened. He is not so sure he can love.  
  
Abigail is as fearless and dedicated as the Daywalker, but she is pure human. Her body is defined, hardened, sharpened into a weapon. She is full of grace and spunk and attitude - and loyalty. Always protecting, always working, always looking out for the others. She takes risks, but is never reckless.  
  
(Not like King; obnoxious, careless King who is human again because for his kind there's a cure.)

In many ways she is more vigilant and prepared than Blade; her humanity a fragility that cannot go unguarded. Being the leader of her team only makes her vigilance more important.  
  
Jared remembers when others followed him; nameless creatures who would eat their own limbs if it meant sating the hunger. He led them, but he didn't care. He only used them - but sometimes he wondered what it would have been like. If he had cared; if they hadn't been mindless animals following after him because instinct told them he was like them but different.  
  
A prince should be a natural leader, his father would have said. If his father hadn't been ashamed and embarrassed and afraid of Nomak and his kind.  
  
Abigail is not afraid of him. The others are slowly following her lead. King is not afraid; he is angry. But Abigail doesn't listen to him; doesn't send Jared away. She talks to him and smiles at him and makes certain he feeds regularly. Perhaps that's for everyone else's sake; perhaps she cares, the way she cares for all the others.  
  
Jared pretends it's the latter.  
  
He wonders what it's like to have someone care about you. For you.  
  
That pain comes rushing back. Sharp and piercing through.  
  
She takes him hunting; her father brought him to her for that purpose, and she puts him to good use. She gives him weapons to use when it's the three of them - Abigail and him and King - but when it's only the two of them she lets him feed.  
  
'You want to start an outbreak, Abby?!' King had shouted at her when she'd let Jared feed on a hunt when it was all three of them. 'That's just asking for trouble.'  
  
Jared remembers being blood-drunk and almost grabbing King's neck and snapping it. He'd felt the vampire's cool blood spreading through his body like a salve, the pain and unbearable heat fading while adrenaline and lust and hunger and craving took over, instinct replacing reason. He'd stared at King, and Abigail had put her hand on his chest.  
  
He can still remember the warmth of her hand through the material of his shirt.  
  
'He needs to feed on them sometimes, Hannibal. I destroy them immediately.' She had been irritated but calm; she was always level-headed, clear-sighted.  
  
But after that he never fed when they were with King.  
  
She'd told him not to pay Hannibal any mind. She'd told him not to worry about it. She'd treated him like a person, all the while his chest felt like it was caving in and the fragments of his bones were embedding deep in the flesh of his heart.  
  
He likes the way he feels when she looks at him though. He likes it despite the pain.  
  
Abigail looks at him like he's human.  
  
'I was never that close to my father,' she tells him one night. After they've hunted; after he's fed. They leave only ashes behind, and dawn is still hours away. So she takes him to a convenient store to get a slushie, because she knows the coolness helps him. 'I'm still not. He didn't even know about me for the longest time.'  
  
He doesn't comment, doesn't respond. How should he? He keeps his skin tan and eyes clear so those around them won't notice anything unnatural under his hood. Focuses on that - and the coolness of the slushy.  
  
'He was a real hard ass when I met him. Kept trying to push me away. When I wouldn't let him, he put me through training. Kept after me, kept telling me how I had to be better than Blade cause I didn't have his perks.'  
  
'Isn't that a catch 22?' he speaks up. Without meaning to; but he feels angry at Whistler for pushing his daughter so hard. Maybe it's because he can relate.  
  
Abigail smiles. She looks softer, younger when she smiles. She is young, he remembers. Older than him, still (unless there were ten or so years stolen from his memory).  
  
'You could say that. But that was his goal; train me to be on par with Blade, least from a technical fighting standpoint. Because I have a smaller chance of making it out alive if I'm caught off guard, or if a vampire gets the upper hand. Blade's got heightened healing and stamina. Not that he's immortal but, he's pretty close.' She looks at him, reaches out and lets her fingers ghost across the back of his hand. 'It's not the same, but I just thought you should know. You're not the only one held to impossibly high standards by your parent.'  
  
It sinks in that she's attempting to connect with him. Reaching out and trying to find common ground between them; for his sake.  
  
There is a pain in his chest and he feels like he can't breathe - which is pointless because he can live without breathing for hours. Though he barely qualifies as living.  
  
_I have a heart encased in bone, but you slipped right through_ , he would tell her if he knew how to speak the words.  
  
But instead he reaches for her hand and ignores the heat of her, melting away the relief brought by the vampires' blood and the cherry slushy. His fingers curl around hers for a moment.  
  
'Thank you. You treat me like I'm...one of you.'  
  
Abigail smiles. 'You are one of us, Jared.'  
  
And the pain is exploding throughout his system, so sharp it's almost sweet. It's the reaper virus mutating in him and creating something twisted, it's what dying must feel like, it's the sight of Nyssa and their father as doors slide closed, shutting him away. But then it's gone.  
  
There are no doors sliding shut; Abigail is not running and hiding behind stone and metal and concrete walls.  
  
Jared smiles back.


End file.
